Can we please not push a closed source electron based app with no options for encryption on the community ?
We already have a irc channel which is on a non-tor friendly network and a slack which is practically the same thing when it comes to the frontend stack with a few differences when it comes to features. (I may be wrong about slack)
Why not go for something based on the matrix protocol which currently has support for bridges for both irc and slack ? Why must we fragment the community another time based on a temporary popular chat application which gained traction just because gamers jumped on it like they jumped on gamergate ?
It even has a meme app for those afraid of their computers based on.. you guessed it, electron. Why of course we’re going to write our desktop applications in javascript and css and use a whole copy of a browser as a runtime for it.
Well, if you want to know a secret, you’re absolutely correct. Discord is a shitty kludged-together meme app that will probably die as soon as the venture capital realizes nobody is going to pay to use a resource-heavy and horribly formatted electron app that basically amounts to a non-compliant RFC 1459 implementation that’s proprietary for the sole reason that anyone who actually cared could cut them out of the loop by doing an infinitely better job.
And when that happens, I hope you’ll join me in pushing as hard as we can for Matrix. But there has to be something for us to push.
The Discord channels for SSC and for rat-tumb have gained more users in the last several days, and seem to have had more activity in them erstwhile, than either IRC or Skype or even LessWrong itself have gained in the last several weeks. It’s simple and it’s easy and it has the people on it who actually make things happen. As the saying goes, if it’s stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid.
I think that Matrix is promising and I hope that, God willing, everyone would be able to seamlessly move to it someday—but right now, what’s important is not creating an optimal environment from first principles, but making use of a platform that a large number of people already agree on. Before moving a community to a new and unfamiliar platform, a community must exist.
It’s been available for years on Freenode IRC, in the #lesswrong channel. Feel free to use whatever front-end you prefer (most open-source chat apps support IRC, and there are web front-ends too.)
It is not obvious to me at all how Slack, Discord et al are in any way better than IRC, indeed I can think of many deficiencies related to interoperability and retention.
Can we please not push a closed source electron based app with no options for encryption on the community ? We already have a irc channel which is on a non-tor friendly network and a slack which is practically the same thing when it comes to the frontend stack with a few differences when it comes to features. (I may be wrong about slack)
Why not go for something based on the matrix protocol which currently has support for bridges for both irc and slack ? Why must we fragment the community another time based on a temporary popular chat application which gained traction just because gamers jumped on it like they jumped on gamergate ?
https://matrix.org/blog/2017/03/11/how-do-i-bridge-thee-let-me-count-the-ways/
It even has a meme app for those afraid of their computers based on.. you guessed it, electron. Why of course we’re going to write our desktop applications in javascript and css and use a whole copy of a browser as a runtime for it.
Here is my two cents:
Well, if you want to know a secret, you’re absolutely correct. Discord is a shitty kludged-together meme app that will probably die as soon as the venture capital realizes nobody is going to pay to use a resource-heavy and horribly formatted electron app that basically amounts to a non-compliant RFC 1459 implementation that’s proprietary for the sole reason that anyone who actually cared could cut them out of the loop by doing an infinitely better job.
And when that happens, I hope you’ll join me in pushing as hard as we can for Matrix. But there has to be something for us to push.
The Discord channels for SSC and for rat-tumb have gained more users in the last several days, and seem to have had more activity in them erstwhile, than either IRC or Skype or even LessWrong itself have gained in the last several weeks. It’s simple and it’s easy and it has the people on it who actually make things happen. As the saying goes, if it’s stupid but it works, it isn’t stupid.
I think that Matrix is promising and I hope that, God willing, everyone would be able to seamlessly move to it someday—but right now, what’s important is not creating an optimal environment from first principles, but making use of a platform that a large number of people already agree on. Before moving a community to a new and unfamiliar platform, a community must exist.
I understand your thought process and I apologize for my initial tone if it was too much. I wish you luck regarding this initiative.
Given that the lesswrong.com website cannot be bothered to get a free SSL certificate and thus is unable to establish an HTTPS connection… in 2017...
I’ve heard the CIA, the FBI and the Illuminati are all onto us. Strong encryption is not negotiable.
Maybe not everyone is ready to take the red pill?
I get the frustration. Make things obviously better than the current system and we will all swap right?
It’s been available for years on Freenode IRC, in the #lesswrong channel. Feel free to use whatever front-end you prefer (most open-source chat apps support IRC, and there are web front-ends too.)
It is not obvious to me at all how Slack, Discord et al are in any way better than IRC, indeed I can think of many deficiencies related to interoperability and retention.